New England!

We went to New England right after school got out, but I'm finally posting pictures.  Warning, this is a TON of pictures!  

10 days for 4 people...not bad.  

(The weird black bag on the right is Arthur's pack and play.)

Freedom Trail in Boston!  This part of the trip was definitely for the adults, but the kids enjoyed all of the sights and sounds in the city and following the red line.  Eleanor insisted that we walk directly on it.  Also, I don't have pictures of this but we took the subway in and out of the city that day.  Arthur especially enjoyed that.

Real ducks in the Boston Common

Amazing cemetery - Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock are all buried here

In front of the Old Statehouse where the Declaration of Independence was read to Bostonians for the first time in July 1776.  Also, the Boston Massacre occurred right in front of it where you can see a group of people standing.

Children's Museum of Boston with Arthur on top.  A boat named "Eleanor" was in the water right next to us.  Eleanor got a big kick out of that.  "There are two Arthurs and two Eleanors!"

Children's museum

Right after I took this, a guy from MIT came up to us and asked us (Eleanor and I) to participate in a study.  They observed her playing with a weird toy they had made and my interactions with her for about 5 minutes. I've read so many studies like that - it was very cool to get to be test subjects for one!

Worn out.

This *NEVER* happens at home.

And we woke them up for...

Make Way for Ducklings!

Eleanor was not thrilled.

The next day we took a little road trip to see Plymouth Rock!

Pilmoth Plantation - very interesting and we spent a lot of time here.  After that we went a little out of our way to go through Rhode Island and Connecticut before returning to Boston.  (We did the same thing a few days later when we were in NH so we could add Vermont to our list too.)

Last day in Boston - Duck tour and Museum of Science
Eleanor got to drive the duck!  (in the water)

A real Triceratops skeleton!

Eleanor LOVED the rocks.  You see all of those drawers?  That's maybe 1/4th of what was there and we looked in every. single. one.

On to our little cottage in New Hampshire.  Traveling must make this boy hungry, because he ate dinner for a full hour.

Getting her first glimpse of snow!!

(And yes, Hunter is wearing shorts.  Of course.)

Snow!  This is what it was like before bed...

And this is what we woke up to!  This was NOT in the weather forecast when we packed for our trip!

Yes, she has plastic bags on her feet.  Hey, it worked.

After less than 30 seconds he was pointing back at the door!  Hah!

Visiting Aunt Kate and Uncle Bruce

Arthur enjoyed rearranging the dirt in their garden

Eleanor got to help pick and cut rhubarb for dessert

Checking out a waterfall with Aunt Kate

Playing "Pooh sticks" on the bridge

What a great day with family!

On our way back, I spotted a bear in a restaurant parking lot!  We pulled off the road and watched the bear stealing trash out of the dumpster.  

He stopped to check us out, but decided that we weren't a threat.

Feet fights!  I wish you could hear the giggling.

We stopped at Grafton Notch State Park, Maine on our drive from NH to the coast.  It was a great place to stretch our legs and have a picnic.

Bar Harbor, Maine
Our first day was very rainy, so we went to the Oceanarium and learned all about lobsters!

We got lucky in Maine - the staff had a miscommunication and didn't have our simple little cottage clean, so they gave us a free upgrade to this fancy one with a nice fireplace.  :)   (And granite countertops, appliances nicer than what we have at home, dishes from Crate & Barrel, etc.)  We definitely didn't mind, especially on our first cold and rainy day!

Thankfully the weather improved for the rest of our trip.  We LOVED Acadia National Park!

Diving tour - this man went underwater and showed us everything he saw on the tv screen

Eleanor was very interested.

Our view of the diver on a big tv in the front of the boat while he was underneath us in the water.

Then he brought it back on the boat and we got to see everything as a National Park ranger answered questions.

Eleanor got her first junior ranger badge!

Checking out lichens on the rock

Amazing view from Cadillac Mountain.  This is the first spot in the US that sees the sun rise (well, depending on who you ask), but we did not venture up there at 4:30 in the morning to witness it!

Stop at the LL Bean Flagship store on our back to the Boston airport

Some quotes

On our trip
Eleanor:  Mama, I think you and I were both bitten by the travel bug!
So glad my girl enjoys travel like her mama!

While playing with another kid on the little playground in the Boston airport
Eleanor (pointing at us):  Those are my parents, Beth and Hunter.

Me:  Okay Eleanor, I'm going to set the timer for 45 minutes for quiet time.  Eleanor:  45 minutes is too long!  Can we have quiet time for one hour?  Pleeeeeeeeeeease?

Me:  Be careful with that muffin Eleanor, because the inside might still be hot.
Eleanor:  I'll be careful!  I'll be as careful as a skunk!
Because apparently skunks are extra careful creatures...

And thanks to Dinosaur Train, "hypothesis" is a word she uses regularly, only she says it "hypockisis".  I love it!

And I don't want to leave Arthur out, so here are some of his newest words:  key, car, choo choo, two, blue, cupcake (kuh-kuh...this also means cake or muffin), juice, cheese, bear, Daddy (as opposed to "dada" which he already knew), and probably more.  He's been adding about one word/day since he got his tubes...I guess they really did help!  The best Arthur "quote" I have isn't verbal though.  The other night he asked for more milk and I got it for him.  He drank some, smiled at me, did the sign for thank you, and pointed at the cup.  I was so proud!

States

We got back from New England last week (pictures and stories coming soon), and while we were in Massachusetts we went a little out of our way to go to RI and CT.

I have now been to 32 states (plus DC and PR).  Which one should be next?!

Eleanor has been to 15 states and PR and Arthur has been to 12.  I keep a map for each of them and we color in each state after we visit it.  Of course Arthur doesn't get this at all yet, but Eleanor was very excited on our trip with each state we entered because she knew she would get to color it in on her map.

Busy month of May!

Arthur gets his fourth (I think?) haircut.  I've done all but the first one myself, and I think I do a pretty decent job thanks to our lesson on cutting hair at MOPS!  :)  I do need to invest in better scissors though.

Happy Mother's Day to me!  Eleanor decided that I needed a cake as my gift.  A BIG cake.

I love how Eleanor wanted to hold hands for this picture!

Yes, it was GIGANTIC.  I sent it to work with Hunter after a day or two.

Eleanor is taking swim lessons and asked for goggles.  She was so excited that she wore these ALL day long!

Ready for swim lessons

When did she get so big?!

She's not really a fan of getting her face wet, but she's getting there!

Learning to float

Eleanor's birthday is in July, but she got her own special day at school last week.  I got to join her for snacktime since we brought cupcakes, and I told her that I liked her birthday hat.  "Mama, it is a birthday CROWN."  

The class sang happy birthday to her.

Mmm, rainbow cupcakes!

Disney had a FL resident special this spring, so Eleanor and I both got 4-day passes.  We took Arthur along (he's free) the first two times we went back in February, but we went by ourselves these last two times.  I never think to bring my camera or take pictures while we're there, but I tried to make an effort for our last day.  We went to Magic Kingdom this time, and we did everything!!  We went on the Peter Pan ride, Under the Sea, the merry-go-round, Astro Orbiter, the people mover (twice! this was a favorite), the Barnstormer (her first roller coaster!), Buzz Lightyear, Small World (my favorite), Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Dumbo, the flying carpets, the Tiki Room, and the speedway.  We also met the fairies and had lunch at the Be Our Guest restaurant (the Beast's castle).  We had long waits for the fairies and to get in for lunch, but otherwise we had very little or no wait for everything we did, so we were done by 6:30.  It was a great day!

So excited on the tram in from the parking lot!

 

 Not great, but here's the classic shot with the castle.

On the merry-go-round

We waited 45 minutes to meet the fairies!  I don't even remember this one's name, but they had a long conversation about what fairies eat.

Finally, Tinkerbell!

They had a great discussion about pirates and how they smell like codfish.

Shortly after leaving the fairies, Eleanor turned to me and said, "Mama, I learned something new today!  Fairies are REAL!  They really DO exist!"  She was so excited.

And now for a little more of Arthur.  The other day we made zucchini bread muffins and I left them out to cool.  I came back in to find Arthur making his own version of muffins!

When he noticed the camera, he looked at me and said, "cheese!"

Some videos

Here is Eleanor singing one of our favorite songs from Music Together - Arthur chimes in a little bit too.  :)

We are not going to be able to attend Eleanor's end of the year program at school, so the teachers were really nice and let me come to one of the practices!  She's on the top right corner.